Book Competition Answer

Two weeks ago, we asked Book Festival ebulletin readers how many books we keep here on the office shelves...


The above is just a slice of our mighty collection! We received many guesses, from 35 to 35,000: and the real number is 1,482. From Alberto Manguel's unique All Men Are Liars to Nora Chassler's riveting Miss Thing, we in the Charlotte Square offices are very lucky to have this treasure trove of books within reach (or, at least, within reach of the taller members of staff we call upon for the top shelves!).

Congratulations to our competition winner, who has won Garth Nix's Lord Sunday and John Harris's Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, with two tickets to each of these brilliant events.

Sign up to the Edinburgh International Book Festival ebulletin for regular email updates about Book Festival activities, offers, recommendations for events and books, literary news, and competitions like the above.

Site Build Day 9

Next week is the last week of the site build, and Charlotte Square gardens is looking more and more familiar to Book Festival regulars...

Roland shares some international gems

For a taster of some of the fantastic international authors appearing at this year's festival, listen to Programme Manager Roland Gulliver's pick of some hidden gems:

And just in case you missed them, or for some reason you can't listen just yet, here's the writers he mentions: Canadian authors Emma Donoghue and Lisa Moore, who have both been long-listed for this year's Man Booker Prize, as well as fellow Canadian Annabel Lyon, whose debut novel, "The Golden Mean", features Athenian philosopher, biologist and seeker of contentment, Aristotle. Roland is also very excited about pairing up Scotland's own Alan Bissett with Lars Husum, whose "My Friend Jesus Christ" is Roland's favourite book cover of the year. And last, but by no means least, he shoots the breeze on James Miller and Olga Slavnikova's event featuring two very different visions of the near future.

Site Build Day 8

The 75,816 books (now 86,179!) reported by Booksales Officer Tracey the other day is such an impressive number that we couldn't help but share a visual representation of it. Here are the jungle of boxes for our on-site bookshops, full of books ready to be stacked, shelved, bought and enjoyed, as presented by (from left to right) Nick, Lewis, Warehouse Manager Graham, Ken, Pat and Book Festival Director Nick:

Meanwhile, in Charlotte Square gardens, a forklift truck goes about its business (lifting forks), and rows of welcoming seats line our tents:


And now -- captured by Technical Manager Craig -- for something mysterious...

An unoriginal food analogy with a good cause

Above: Chattering author Louise Stern

The official Edinburgh Festivals TV channel is serving up a taste of some of the delectable events on offer at our feast of a Book Festival later this month. (Makes you hungry, doesn't it?)

Enjoy videos of Adam Foulds, Andrew O’Hagan, James Brabazon, Louise Stern and Geoff Dyer as they set a trail of sweets to their already very tempting events.
Adam Foulds will be at the Book Festival on Sunday 29 August to reveal his new novel, The Quickening Maze, a remarkable tale of an imprisoned poet contemplating the worlds on either side of the bars.
The charismatic Andrew O’Hagan shares the secrets of Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Munroe in his event on Sunday 15 August, through the utterly unique voice of a dog called Maf.
James Brabazon is here on Saturday 28 August with a gripping, moving and sincere account of extraordinary South African mercenary Nick du Toit. He will be joined by James Maskalyk, who will captivate with his tales of his time as a doctor in Sudan.
Louise Stern, who was born deaf, has written Chattering: Stories, and on Sunday 29 August will discuss this intriguing new work as part of our innovative and exciting new Unbound series of events.
On Monday 23 August Geoff Dyer helps answer the controversial question: has the novel reached crisis point? David Shields, Gaby Wood and Stuart Kelly join him in a lively, fascinating debate that promises to linger.
See you soon!

Site Build Day 7

An update from the bushes:

Talking Book(sale)s

Here in Booksales, as you can imagine, we receive a lot of books. A lot of books. The vast majority of those books are processed in our warehouse (which you'll read more about later, right here on this blog). As of this moment, the warehouse has processed 75,816 books, with plenty more to come. (They'll be into six figures by the end of the festival.) And you can purchase every one of those books - around 8,000 titles - in our independently-run on-site bookshops.

A few of the books we stock are delivered directly to the office, which means the corridor outside Booksales Central resembles a wee warehouse at this time of --


...er, hang on. No one at the Festival is planning on taking a vacation any time soon. So why do we have a suitcase...?


Ah. Because it contains books. Specifically, RNIB Talking Books.


The two main booktents have panels devoted to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), which is the UK's leading charity offering information, support and advice to people with sight loss.

A DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) book is a digital talking book, structured in such a way to allow the reader to move around the book as someone would use a print book. For instance, the reader can skip to a new chapter, or bookmark a favourite passage. RNIB have a selection of DAISY books which can be purchased for around the same price as the printed paperback version, and we're pleased to be able to sell a selection.

If you're browsing in either the Adult Bookshop or RBS Children's Bookshop, please stop at the RNIB panel and check them out.

- Tracey S. Rosenberg, a/k/a the Booksales Officer

P.S. Joanne Harris, whose DAISY book is shown above, is appearing at this year's Festival, and tickets are still available.

P.P.S. Every purchase you make in our shops - in any format - supports the Book Festival. Thank you!